A variety of products are packaged, stored and delivered to users or consumers in so-called blister packages (or “blister packs”). Products such as medicines, dietary supplements, chewing gum, etc., are provided in blister packs that generally allow consumers to individually dispense a discrete quantity or unit of the product from the blister pack. In a typical application, each unit of the product contained in the blister pack is held in a separate “blister,” isolated from other units and also protected from exposure to adverse environments. To dispense a product, a consumer will generally apply pressure or force to a non-rupturable side of the blister pack, and a unit of product is thereby dispensed outwardly from an opposing side of the pack, the opposing side being ruptured as a result of application of the force. In this manner, a user can dispense one unit of product at a time from the blister pack, without exposing, touching or contaminating other units of product that remain in the blister pack.
One particular application in which blister packs have found widespread use is in the area of medicament storage and packaging. Medicaments ranging from over-the-counter cold remedies to birth control medications have been provided in a variety of blister pack configurations. Blister packs are popular in the field of medicine because they allow controlled dosage of discrete units of a medicament from the blister pack while non-dispensed medicament remaining in the blister pack is maintained in a protected state.
In addition, blister packs have provided a way in which related medicaments, which form part of a common regime but have differing strengths and/or formulations, can be provided to a patient in a simple, comprehendible unit. For example, birth control medication is often prescribed on a 28-day cycle regime, with one group of tablets prescribed for the initial 21 days and another group of similar, but differing tablets, prescribed for the final 7-day increment. As information which distinguishes the groups of tablets one from another can be printed on the blister pack, blister packs are a convenient manner in which such regimes can be accommodated without confusing patients, and while also providing a relatively long-term (e.g., one month or longer) supply of medicament to a patient.
While blister packages provide many benefits, they also include a number of disadvantages. One such problem lies in the fact that blister packages are designed to dispense unit doses with relative ease. Thus, applying force to the non-rupturable side of the blister package should result in the opposing side rupturing relatively easily to dispense the medicament. While this design provides ease of dispensation, the medicament stored in the blister pack can be inadvertently dispensed from the blister pack when the non-rupturable side of the pack contacts other items, undesirably forcing medicament from the blisters of the pack. In addition, the rupturable side of the pack can be compromised by contact with other items, and the medicament thereby exposed within the blister of the pack can become contaminated.
In addition, while “bare” blister packs are relatively easy to transport in a pocket, purse, handbag, briefcase, etc., removal of the blister packs from the original carton or box in which they were provided can result in leaving behind important or necessary information printed on the carton or box. Thus, information such as drug interaction information, accidental ingestion information, dosage instructions, warnings, etc., is often not carried with the blister packs containing the medicament to which the information relates.
Due to these considerations, attempts have been made to develop containers for storing blister packs of medicament that allow users to protectively and conveniently carry the blister packs, with some containers allowing simultaneous storage of information sheets bearing information relating to the medicament. However, containers developed to date have proved over-complicated and bulky, and have dispensing mechanisms that can result in the medicament tablets or capsules becoming crushed, split or otherwise damaged during dispensing of the medication. These problems have increased consumers' unwillingness to be bothered with attempting to utilize such containers, and/or with such an increase in handling and packaging costs that the advantages of using blister packs become negated.